Case Study #1 Pizzeria
Greenverse approaches a local pizza restaurant for partnership opportunities. Develop a phone
language for the first call. The most important goal here is to get a face to face meeting.
Example: “How are you today? This is Jeff Xin, a student from the local university and I’m
working with a nonprofit to provide free books for a local elementary school. I was wondering if
you would be interested in sponsoring one of our reading events with sample or discounted
products. It would be a great opportunity to get your name out there to show the community your
involvement, and to have people sample your product…great, when would be a good time we
can meet to discuss the details? That’s perfect. See you then.”
This is just one example of effective phone language. Feel free to alter and adapt it to what
works best for you. Keep in mind once again, that the most important goal right here is to get
that initial face to face meeting.
After calling ahead to schedule an initial meeting with the manager/owner, the person
responsible for marketing functions and community relation functions sits down to prepare for
the meeting.
To prepare for this meeting, Greenverse leaders do the following
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Understand the service the business provides thoroughly
Understand the demographics of the customers of the business, including geographic
constraints
Understand how the Greenverse model can be adapted to maximize marketing goals of
the business
Brainstorm several effective possibilities, outline them on paper, and prepare to present
the ideas to the manager/owner
In this example, Greenverse came up with a simple straightforward, but effective plan to not only
provide the students with incentives to read, but also to increase the pizzeria’s reputation and
provide sample products to hundreds of potential customers. The following outlines the plan:
For each student who reads a book donated by Greenverse on the environment, nature, animals,
and so on, they receive a certificate redeemable for a free slice of pizza at Pizzeria A. Simple,
right? Here are some ways the pizzeria benefits from partnering with Greenverse.
Pizzeria’s Benefits
The most important marketing function for many businesses, especially small businesses, is to
have potential customers try the product, like it, and then become a repeat customer. By having
the prize be a sample product, the Pizzeria is giving out a free sample at the cost of the
production cost of a slice of pizza (very cheap).
To redeem the coupon onsite guarantees at least one parent (or even better, both parents and
some siblings) drives the participant to the Pizzeria to redeem the certificate. The pizzeria might
even make a profit on the first visit alone, but the real value is actually the opportunity to attract
a repeat customer in the process. The pizza in this case can be substituted by potentially any
product effective to draw in student participants. The sample/product is effectively the loss
leader and the marketing channel is through our program. If the business offers a high value
product or service, and cannot offer to give away an entire free product as a prize, certificates for
a certain percentage off are also acceptable. Each case is different and it is up to you to make the
judgment call as well as negotiating with individual businesses.
In order for a company to be successful, customer trust and customer loyalty are also essential.
Some of the most profitable companies in the world are so because of their positive relationship
with their customers. Companies that excel in relationship marketing include Coca-Cola, Disney,
NBA’s NBA Cares Campaign, McDonalds, etc.
While large companies engage in this relationship building, smaller companies have neither the
resources nor the awareness on how to build these relationships. In participating with
Greenverse, the pizzeria displays good will to the community by showing they care about
literacy and academic success of the children of the community. Since Greenverse also promotes
environmental sustainability through the books it chooses, it can also help businesses build a
green and sustainable image, which is also marketable (such as the Toyota Prius, Whole Foods,
etc.) The best part is that all these marketing efforts are targeted directly and powerfully to only
the community that these local businesses serve.
Sell The Service
After preparing a detailed outline and an effective presentation of the value Greenverse provides
to this business, use effective communication to convey the benefit we can provide. Because this
is a unique program, it is imperative that you communicate effectively the value you provide and
be prepared to answer any questions the business owner/manager might have. Do your best at
negotiating a partnership. Many will say yes, but some will also decline to join. Do your best
because hundreds and maybe thousands of children depends on you for the reading program!
Obtaining Books
Books are obtained through book drives, purchased from various bookstores, donations, and
many other methods. Please refer to the Operations Guide and also the Annual Plan for a more
thorough walkthrough for methods of obtaining books.
Contact The School
Once the partnership with a local business is established and the books obtained, the next step is
to contact the school. It is similar as first contacting a business. Once again, a face to face
meeting is the goal. This is a relatively easy step to accomplish as few schools would ever refuse
the offer of free books and prizes for students. The important part is to identify a person within
the school who is able, willing, and influential enough to serve as the point of contact with
Greenverse.
Example: “Hi, I’m Jeff Xin, I’m a student at the local university and I work with Greenverse, a
nonprofit organization that promotes literacy and knowledge of sustainability for children. We
provide free children’s books as well as prizes for the students who read. We would like to have
the opportunity to work with the kids of your school. Who would be the person in your school
who I could talk to discuss this?” (Perhaps an English teacher, a librarian, etc).
Once a person has been identified, reintroduce yourself and the organization again, and schedule
for a time to come in to talk about the program and the details. Answer any questions and
concerns and communicate the value of our program to the students as well as the school.
Implementation
After the business becomes a partner, the next step is to implement the plan. In this case with the
Pizzeria, we provided certificates for a free slice of pizza to the teachers to give to the students
upon completion of the reading program. It’s imperative to collect feedback and information,
such as how many certificates were given out and how many were redeemed with a general idea
of the time window. With that said, it’s also better to have an expiration date on the certificates
so that the customers do not just trickle in over a long period of time. It is better to have the
campaign be short (within 2 weeks or a month), and impactful. Also collect any feedback from
business partners to make further improvements to the partnership. After all, we want the
business partner to be a “repeat customer” of Greenverse as well.